Human diet is a major factor in getting oilahuasca working. Many people consume food, drinks and supplements known to inhibit 17bHSD2. Drinks as commonplace as tea and grapefruit juice potently inhibit 17bHSD2. These and other detrimental dietary items explained in this article must be avoided for at least 24 hours prior to using oilahuasca if psychedelic effects are desired. Failure to adhere to these dietary guidelines can completely prevent oilahuasca from working. The 17bHSD2 enzyme is critical for oilahuasca to work. If this enzyme is inhibited by drinking tea or ingesting similar 17bHSD2 inhibitors, it can be impossible to get oilahuasca working. This has been verified by several people. Please adhere to these diet guidelines if you want any success with oilahuasca.

SUPPLEMENTS AND FOODS TO AVOID

All inhibitors of oxidative 17bHSD2 will prevent activation of allylbenzenes. This enzyme must be induced, not inhibited. It's the single most important enzyme to induce. If oxidative 17bHSD2 is not functioning, allylbenzenes cannot produce psychedelic activity.[1]

It's not known which metabolites of the allylbenzenes are the preferred alkaloid metabolites. Avoid these substances if you specifically want to avoid making too many dimethylamine metabolites.

Anecdotal reports indicate that supplementation with piperidine sources improves activation, and supplementation with dimethylamine sources reduces psychedelic activity. The exact reason for this is currently unknown. Some reports indicate that methyl eugenol and myristicin can be inactive in some cases unless used with piperidine supplements.

BENEFICIAL SUPPLEMENTS

Berberine is one of the most powerful activators tested. It potently inhibits CYP2D6, and inhibits CYP2C9 and CYP3A4, while leaving CYP2E1 active. There may be other unknown actions at play. When used with caffeine (inhibits CYP1A2) and steviosides (theorized to inhibit UGT2B7), it's been able to activate elemicin at doses smaller than any other activator tested. It works better than black pepper tea, and produces a cleaner experience. Black pepper has sedative effects in the doses used, and colors up the experience.

It's believed that berberine's lack of sedative effects and it's potent inhibition of CYP2D6 and it's inaction on CYP2E1 are why it's more effective than black pepper. CYP2D6 appears to be extremely detrimental to activation and CYP2E1 appears to be vital. Piperine found in black pepper has been shown to inhibit CYP2E1[4] to some degree in humans, which is not good.

Note that black pepper contains piperine and other alkaloids in addition to piperidine. Piperine inhibits CYP3A4 which is good, but it also has some other actions, such as inhibiting CYP2E1[4] to some degree, which is not good. More tests need to be performed on isolated piperine to determine it's effectiveness. When making black pepper tea, filtering out the solids removes a lot of the piperine. Piperine’s solubility in water is only 9.4 mg per cup. However, piperine is potent, and 10-20 mg of piperine can inhibit CYP3A4. 5 grams of black pepper contains about 500 mg of piperine, but only 9.4 mg will be extracted into 1 cup of water. The rest remains in the solid black pepper grounds. 1 cup of water can hold all the piperidine in black pepper.

Genistein induces 17bHSD2, an essential enzyme required for activation. It also inhibits UGT, SULT, and GST. Genistein is still being researched. It's effectiveness has been called into question. Until more data is available, it might be better to avoid genistein. Kudzu, from which it is extracted, was found to reduce psychedelic action by interacting with 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, and 5-HT2C receptors.

See the articles Genistein and 17bHSD2 for more details and references to the facts stated above.

Glycerol

Acts as an SSAO inhibitor. When using glucosamine to inhibit SSAO it's probably best use it 1 hour before and then again combined with coffee at the time the allylbenzenes are ingested, and a few times periodically throughout the experience to boost the psychedelic effects. Doses of 1500 mg glucosamine HCl have been tested along with coffee producing very good results. Its possible that lower doses are effective but they have not been tested. Glucosamine has a half life of approximately 15 hours. It's SSAO inhibition is likely to last at least 15 hours or more.

See the articles Glucosamine and SSAO for more details and references to the facts stated above.

It can take 3 or more hours for food to reach the colon (this varies dramatically from person to person, and depends highly on other contents in the digestive system). For this reason L-lysine supplements should be take several hours before taking allylbenzenes.